Jasper County citizens group pushes for tighter porn rules

Friday

May 30, 2008 at 12:01 AMMay 30, 2008 at 9:56 PM

Residents opposed to the expansion of sexually oriented businesses tried for the second week in a row to convince the Jasper County Commissioners to act on some kind of ordinance regulating adult video stores.

John Hacker

Residents opposed to the expansion of sexually oriented businesses tried for the second week in a row to convince the Jasper County Commissioners to act on some kind of ordinance regulating adult video stores.

The commissioners and their legal advisor, Assistant Prosecutor Blake Wolf, repeated their position from last week that they needed to wait for the federal court of the Western District of Missouri to rule on a lawsuit seeking to block enforcement of a Jackson County ordinance regulating video stores before they pass a similar ordinance.

The residents, led by John Putnam, Merri Putnam, Pete Connelly Jim Valenti and other members of Citizens for a Decent Environment, again asked the commissioners to pass an ordinance based on ordinances that had been upheld by a federal appeals court.

This time, Derek Martin, a Jasper County patent attorney, accompanied the group.
Martin admitted he had not read the complaint being adjudicated in Jackson County, but he said the important issue is to get an ordinance and not be concerned about "empty threats from the other side."

"We don't need to run from ghosts and empty threats," Martin said. "Those purveying pornography will make empty threats to try to stop you from regulating them. The legal authority clearly backs you up. My message to the commission would be to please proceed forward, lets get this ordinance regulating sexually oriented businesses passed as soon as possible for the good of the county."

Wolf repeated his recommendation that the commissioners wait for the U.S. District Court of Western Missouri to rules on a suit by an adult video store, seeking an injunction preventing Jackson County from enforcing its own ordinance strictly regulating adult video stores, before they act.

Jasper County Commissioners were ready to pass an ordinance, written by Wolf and based on the Jackson County ordinance, when the lawsuit was filed in April.

"We don't want to do something that would fly in the face of the federal court when the court we are right under is considering a suit on the exact same thing," Wolf said. "They are getting ready to make a ruling on the issue and I've told the commissioners it would be in the best interest of the county to wait."